"Of course not. "Shouldn"t have allowed it if I had; but I"ve seen the corpses. The dacoits had a trick of sending a crucified corpse down the river on a raft, just to show they were keeping their tail up and enjoying themselves. Well, that was the kind of people I had to deal with."
"Alone?" said Cleever. Solitude of the soul he could understand--none better--but he had never in the body moved ten miles from his fellows.
"I had my men, but the rest of it was pretty much alone. The nearest post that could give me orders was fifteen miles away, and we used to heliograph to them, and they used to give us orders same way--too many orders."
"Who was your C. O.?" said Boileau.
"Bounderby--Major. Pukka Bounderby; more Bounder than pukka. He went out up Bhamo way. Shot, or cut down, last year," said The Infant.
"What are these interludes in a strange tongue?" said Cleever to me.
"Professional information--like the Mississippi pilots" talk," said I. "He did not approve of his major, who died a violent death. Go on, Infant."
"Far too many orders. You couldn"t take the Tommies out for a two days"
daur--that"s expedition--without being blown up for not asking leave.
And the whole country was humming with dacoits. I used to send out spies, and act on their information. As soon as a man came in and told me of a gang in hiding, I"d take thirty men with some grub, and go out and look for them, while the other subaltern lay doggo in camp."
"Lay! Pardon me, but how did he lie?" said Cleever.
"Lay doggo--lay quiet, with the other thirty men. When I came back, he"d take out his half of the men, and have a good time of his own."
"Who was he?" said Boileau.
"Carter-Deecey, of the Aurungabadis. Good chap, but too zubberdusty, and went bokhar four days out of seven. He"s gone out too. Don"t interrupt a man."
Cleever looked helplessly at me.
"The other subaltern," I translated swiftly, "came from a native regiment, and was overbearing in his demeanour. He suffered much from the fever of the country, and is now dead. Go on, Infant."
"After a bit, we got into trouble for using the men on frivolous occasions, and so I used to put my signaller under arrest to prevent him reading the helio-orders. Then I"d go out and leave a message to be sent an hour after I got clear of the camp, something like this: "Received important information; start in an hour, unless countermanded." If I was ordered back, it didn"t much matter. I swore the C. O."s watch was wrong, or something, when I came back. The Tommies enjoyed the fun, and--Oh, yes, there was one Tommy who was the bard of the detachment. He used to make up verses on everything that happened."
"What sort of verses?" said Cleever.
"Lovely verses; and the Tommies used to sing "em. There was one song with a chorus, and it said something like this." The Infant dropped into the true barrack-room tw.a.n.g:
"Theebaw, the Burma king, did a very foolish thing, When "e mustered "ostile forces in ar-rai, "E little thought that we, from far across the sea, Would send our armies up to Mandalai!"
"O gorgeous!" said Cleever. "And how magnificently direct! The notion of a regimental bard is new to me, but of course it must be so."
"He was awfly popular with the men," said The Infant. "He had them all down in rhyme as soon as ever they had done anything. He was a great bard. He was always ready with an elegy when we picked up a Boh--that"s a leader of dacoits."
"How did you pick him up?" said Cleever.
"Oh! shot him if he wouldn"t surrender."
"You! Have you shot a man?"
There was a subdued chuckle from all three boys, and it dawned on the questioner that one experience in life which was denied to himself, and he weighed the souls of men in a balance, had been shared by three very young gentlemen of engaging appearance. He turned round on Nevin, who had climbed to the top of the bookcase and was sitting cross-legged as before.
"And have you, too?"
"Think so," said Nevin, sweetly. "In the Black Mountain. He was rolling cliffs on to my half-company, and spoiling our formation. I took a rifle from a man, and brought him down at the second shot."
"Good Heavens! And how did you feel afterwards?"
"Thirsty. I wanted a smoke, too."
Cleever looked at Boileau--the youngest. Surely his hands were guiltless of blood.
Boileau shook his head and laughed. "Go on, Infant," said he.
"And you too?" said Cleever.
"Fancy so. It was a case of cut, cut or be cut, with me; so I cut--one.
I couldn"t do any more, sir."
Cleever looked as though he would like to ask many questions, but The Infant swept on in the full tide of his tale.
"Well, we were called insubordinate young whelps at last, and strictly forbidden to take the Tommies out any more without orders. I wasn"t sorry, because Tommy is such an exacting sort of creature. He wants to live as though he were in barracks all the time. I was grubbing on fowls and boiled corn, but the Tommies wanted their pound of fresh meat, and their half ounce of this, and their two ounces of t"other thing, and they used to come to me and badger me for plug tobacco when we were four days in jungle. I said: "I can get you Burma tobacco, but I don"t keep a canteen up my sleeve." They couldn"t see it. They wanted all the luxuries of the season, confound "em!"
"You were alone when you were dealing with these men?" said Cleever, watching The Infant"s face under the palm of his hand. He was receiving new ideas, and they seemed to trouble him.
"Of course, unless you count the mosquitoes. They were nearly as big as the men. After I had to lie doggo I began to look for something to do, and I was great pals with a man called Hicksey in the Police, the best man that ever stepped on earth; a first-cla.s.s man."
Cleever nodded applause. He knew how to appreciate enthusiasm.
"Hicksey and I were as thick as thieves. He had some Burma mounted police--rummy chaps, armed with sword and Snider carbine. They rode punchy Burma ponies, with string stirrups, red cloth saddles, and red bell-rope headstalls. Hicksey used to lend me six or eight of them when I asked him--nippy little devils, keen as mustard. But they told their wives too much, and all my plans got known, till I learned to give false marching orders overnight, and take the men to quite a different village in the morning. Then we used to catch the simple daku before breakfast, and made him very sick. It"s a ghastly country on the Hlinedatalone; all bamboo jungle, with paths about four feet wide winding through it. The daku knew all the paths, and potted at us as we came round a corner; but the mounted police knew the paths as well as the daku, and we used to go stalking "em in and out. Once we flushed "em, the men on the ponies had the advantage of the men on foot. We held all the country absolutely quiet for ten miles round, in about a month. Then we took Boh Na-ghee, Hicksey and I and the civil officer. That was a lark!"
"I think I am beginning to understand a little," said Cleever. "It was a pleasure to you to administer and fight?"
"Rather! There"s nothing nicer than a satisfactory little expedition, when you find your plans fit together, and your information"s teek--correct, you know, and the whole sub-chiz--I mean, when everything works out like formulae on a blackboard. Hicksey had all the information about the Boh. He had been burning villages and murdering people right and left, and cutting up Government convoys, and all that. He was lying doggo in a village about fifteen miles off, waiting to get a fresh gang together. So we arranged to take thirty mounted police, and turn him out before he could plunder into our newly-settled villages. At the last minute, the civil officer in our part of the world thought he"d a.s.sist at the performance."
"Who was he?" said Nevin.
"His name was Dennis," said The Infant slowly. "And we"ll let it stay so. He"s a better man now than he was then."
"But how old was the civil power?" said Cleever. "The situation is developing itself."
"He was about six-and-twenty, and he was awf"ly clever. He knew a lot of things, but I don"t think he was quite steady enough for dacoit-hunting.
We started overnight for Boh Na-ghee"s village, and we got there just before morning, without raising an alarm. Dennis had turned out armed to his teeth--two revolvers, a carbine, and all sorts of things. I was talking to Hicksey about posting the men, and Dennis edged his pony in between us, and said, "What shall I do? What shall I do? Tell me what to do, you fellows." We didn"t take much notice; but his pony tried to bite me in the leg, and I said, "Pull out a bit, old man, till we"ve settled the attack." He kept edging in, and fiddling with his reins and his revolvers, and saying, "Dear me! Dear me! Oh, dear me! What do you think I"d better do?" The man was in a deadly funk, and his teeth were chattering."
"I sympathise with the civil power," said Cleever. "Continue, young Clive."
"The fun of it was, that he was supposed to be our superior officer.
Hicksey took a good look at him, and told him to attach himself to my party. Beastly mean of Hicksey, that. The chap kept on edging in and bothering, instead of asking for some men and taking up his own position, till I got angry, and the carbines began popping on the other side of the village. Then I said, "For G.o.d"s sake be quiet, and sit down where you are! If you see anybody come out of the village, shoot at him." I knew he couldn"t hit a hayrick at a yard. Then I took my men over the garden wall--over the palisades, y" know--somehow or other, and the fun began. Hicksey had found the Boh in bed under a mosquito-curtain, and he had taken a flying jump on to him."
"A flying jump!" said Cleever. "Is that also war?"